Mom found passed out in car with a ‘nearly empty’ vodka bottle — and her 2 kids, cops say

A mom of two young children was arrested Sunday in Pembroke Pines on charges including child abuse and resisting arrest after police say she was found passed out in a parked car with a nearly empty bottle of vodka next to her.

“The driver awoke and opened the driver-side door,” an officer wrote in a police report. “I was able to observe an open alcoholic beverage clear glass container with a label that stated Absolut Vodka in blue letters.”

Police say Carolina Buitrago, 39, pulled her gray Honda Accord over in the 11000 block of Southwest 16th Street at about 11 a.m. Sunday and fell asleep with her 2- and 4-year-old children in the backseat.

The older of the two children rolled down the window and asked two people standing nearby by for “help to wake up his mother,” the officer wrote.

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At that point the car was off and children were sweaty, the witnesses told police. Buitrago then woke up, went to the driver’s side back door and hit one of the children with an open hand, according to police.

The witnesses went back to where they were standing and then came back a short time later to check on the children.

When they returned they found the car running and Buitrago asleep again, police said.

They tried to wake her up, but called police when their efforts were unsuccessful, according to the report.

Buitrago told police that she bought the bottle of vodka earlier in the day “and was drinking while driving the vehicle with the two juveniles in the vehicle, but that she never hit her children,” the officer wrote.

The officer then placed Buitrago under arrest, but she resisted, according to the officer.

“Once I opened the back door on the driver side of my vehicle and assisted the [defendant] to a seated position in my vehicle, she wrapped her feet around the bottom of the door, not allowing me to close the door,” he said.

The children were placed in the custody of Broward’s Child Protective Investigation Section.